For those of you who are regular followers of my blog, you will know that I am the current coordinator of the NCAA-recognized College Football Researchers Association Poll.

The College Football Researchers Association was originally founded by the late Anthony Cusher of Reeder, North Dakota in 1982. It was an organization modeled after the Professional Football Researchers Association (PFRA) consisting of college football fans and writers dedicated to researching and analyzing the history of the game. The CFRA retrospectively elected national champions from the years of 1919-1981 based on a poll created by Harry Carson Frye and also voted on present-day national champions during the years of 1982-1992. They published their results in a monthly bulletin produced by Robert Kirlin of Spokane, Washington until after the ’92 season when the association ceased operations and several successor organizations, operating under different names, were created.

In fall of 2009, under the coordination of myself and others and with the involvement of past members, the College Football Researchers Association was reorganized, and a group of both new and original CFRA voters was assembled to recreate this influential poll.  The NCAA immediately recognized our rebirth and has listed our national champion in the FBS record book (p. 69-70) for each of the past ten seasons.  In fact, according to official NCAA records, the College Football Researchers Association has elected more national champions than any other multi-voter poll in the country! 

Basically, the CFRA poll has functioned like any other college football poll with each of its voters submitting top 25 ballots. The polls are then posted on our organization’s website: www.cfrapoll.com.   There are four CFRA Polls that will be published throughout the season: a preseason poll, a mid-season poll (tabulated after week 7), an end of regular season poll (tabulated after week 14), and a final poll after the playoff is completed.

Also this season, we are looking to further expand the poll by adding other avid college football fans who would like to participate. If you would like to become a CFRA voter, please e-mail me at bmatthews85@gmail.com and I will get you put on our mailing list and give you information on how to submit your weekly poll.  It would also be great if you could provide me with your name, location, and brief description of your college football interests and involvement so that I know a little bit about each of the voters.